


Time Slipped

by Raaj



Category: Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, references to violence and death but none actually shown, slightly unconventional use of gameplay mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 06:32:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13758303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raaj/pseuds/Raaj
Summary: In another world, the heroes try to break free of Airy's plan, and learn that it will be much harder than they first thought.





	Time Slipped

The fight against Gigas Lich did not go as smoothly as it could have. Agnès was still getting used to the sudden switch-up in her fighting style. Though she was competent enough in meting out punishment through magical means, she had been slightly remiss in practicing the monk asterisk as of late, and thus surprised when Ringabel had asked her to be their Barras Lehr of the day. But she had not protested. She trusted her friends… had, in fact, entrusted them with her fate.  
  
After today she will have not just shattered bones with her fists; she will have shattered a crystal with her will. And, if the sage’s words of warning were valid, if Ringabel’s returning memories were true… if Airy were the Evil One, and she found rebellion deserving of violent retaliation…  
  
A tremor ran through Agnès’ body, unbidden, and Edea’s hands paused in task of straightening the vestal garb. The Eternian rose to give her friend a tight hug with her strong, reassuringly firm arms. “Agnès? Are you ready for this?”  
  
“I will see this through. I promise you.” Had promised all of them. She would not force her friends to further endure a futile journey.  
  
But they were not free to speak at the moment; Airy accompanied Agnès nearly everywhere, and even when the vestal was changing for the ritual, the fairy would choose to flit within the tiny room or just outside in the halls. They could not afford to raise suspicions from the tiny creature if she were the Evil One. Ringabel remembered a frightening creature that had killed the Edea, Agnès and Tiz of his world. If Airy were truly capable of such violence, they should keep every advantage they could have, including surprise. Airy needed to think that they were simply preparing for the rite of awakening the crystal.  
  
Agnès let out an uneasy sigh. “Is there… anything else I need do?” she asked Edea quietly, hoping the girl could give her a sign. Their plan did not stop at wracking her nerves over the subversion of beliefs she had held so long. It also frightened her because she did not know all the details. Agnès had only been able to claim a small amount of time away from Airy, long enough for the four of them to confirm they were all agreed: this world would be the last they passed through; this crystal the last awakened, and to a violent end at that. She did not know if they would ever be able to return to their original world, but they would not bring the harrowing to any other. After they had established that much, they had begun to plan their strategy for battle…but it hadn’t been long before they caught Airy’s voice calling her name, and she had needed to leave so the fairy would not wander closer to their meeting place and hear too much.  
  
The constant companionship had once been welcome and comforting, but with new suspicions, it had turned smothering.  
  
And knowing the fairy was nearby, Edea shook her head, speaking lightly as if nothing were wrong. “Don’t worry. Ringabel’s already healed himself and Tiz from Gigas Lich. Besides, you need all your energy to awaken the crystal.”  
  
Meaning what Agnès had already suspected: she did not need to know the plan in detail, because the rite already sapped so much energy from her normally that the extended time required to overcharge the crystal and shatter it would almost certainly leave her useless. That was surely why Ringabel had asked her to take a more offensive role today; the other three had shifted their own roles around to be able to adequately cover defense and recovery on their own, a necessity when facing an evil such as this.  
  
She had to accept that they may very soon be placing their lives at risk to protect her, and this time she could do nothing to protect them. She had to have faith that they had adequately planned. …Which, of course they had. Ringabel and Edea were soldiers, and though Tiz had been brought up for a life of work, not war, he had proven himself to have a good mind for detail and the will to do whatever was needed to keep his friends from coming to harm. They had prepared.  
  
With a deep, calming breath, the vestal turned to Edea. Their eyes met with shared determination.  
  
“I am ready.”  
  


* * *

  
“I am ready, Airy.”  
  
“I’m sure you have the hang of it, but if there’s anything you’d like to go over again, just ask.”  
  
Agnès shook her head, impatient. “Let us begin.” She wanted done with this façade. Now that she had the will to walk down the path that was truly right… she wanted to sprint down it and get things over with, as quickly as possible. But no, that wasn’t correct either. She took a calming breath, already slowing her breathing to match the rhythm of the earth crystal’s quietly humming energy as she knelt on the ground. Once her breathing matched, she reached with her spirit and searched out the store of prayers held within the stone, as she had eleven times before. She drew the prayers of an entire vestal’s life to her mind and heart as she inhaled, and on the exhale she unleashed the store of energy that devout woman had placed within the crystal.  
  
And again, and again. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. A familiar burn was starting in her chest as the first glimmers of the crystal’s radiance shone on her closed eyes. Airy was saying something–but Agnès paid her no mind.  
  
There would be no listening to Airy today.  
  
Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Gasping for more breath when she could, but not daring to fall out of rhythm with the crystal. Airy’s voice seemed even fainter than before, unimportant in the face of the tens of thousands of prayers stored in the crystal’s heart. These women had devoted their lives to the welfare of the world. Agnès would see to it that their efforts were truly not in vain. These vestals’ prayers would save Luxendarc, even if it were through a crystal’s destruction.  
  
Inhale, exhale, lifetimes of prayer. The yellow glow of the crystal was now glaring, its shine turned red through her eyelids as if she had her face pointed toward the midday sun over Harena. She knew without Airy telling her that it was ‘enough’. The point at which the fairy would have her stop.  
  
She would not be stopped from following the path she had chosen. And when next the fairy spoke, she still did not bother to distinguish the words, but she picked up on a worried tone before–“Hello? Can you even hear me?!” burst through, loud and clear. Airy had drawn closer. She was trying to disrupt her concentration. Unacceptable!  
  
Inhale, exhale, her own breathing now harsh and loud in her ears. The crystal had set the initial rhythm, but she was leading it now, increasing its energy and internal pressure just as the pressure built in her chest.  
  
“Agnès! Stop this! You’ll destroy the crystal!”  
  
Onward and onward… not a sprint, but a steady, unyielding march to a dazzling end.  
  
“Stop…please. You have to stop, Agnès. Agnès, why are you doing this?” Airy whimpered, and the vestal grit her teeth. She was doing this to save the worlds yet untouched by the harrowing! Even if it took all the strength from her body, she would…  
  
“Stop, stop, stop! Before the whole world is destroyed! Please, Agnès! We’ve worked so hard to save it! Don’t throw it all away!” Airy sounded genuinely close to tears now, her pain causing a prick in Agnès’ heart. But she was too set in her own focus now, repeatedly drawing out lifetimes’ of prayers, letting their own fervent dedication fuel her. “Don’t you care about your friends? Aren’t I your friend, too? So, please, listen to me! Listen to me!”  
  
Would she destroy the world with this course of action? But she had already determined that Airy was the one deceiving her. All she needed to do now was hold on to the courage to disobey. The courage to disobey, in order to do what was truly right. She had found that courage within herself.  
  
But then–  
  
“Agnès, stop! You can’t go on!”  
  
Her will wavered. Her breath hitched. The connection between vestal and crystal, threaded through sacred garb, snapped, and there was no way she could reforge that bond now that she had fallen out of rhythm with the living stone.  
  
It all happened in an instant. Without the prayers of the previous vestals sustaining her, the exhaustion that had built immediately weighted her down; her trembling arms became the only things keeping her from collapsing face down on the marble staircase in tears at her failure. Edea was quickly at her side, steadying and supporting her, but it was Tiz that she turned her head to look at in disbelief. Why–why had he stopped her? She had been prepared to ignore all Airy’s protests, but a simple 'stop’ from Tiz and she crumbled.  
  
He looked in danger of crumbling himself, his face pale and his chest heaving with panicked breathing. “Tiz? What’s wrong?” Had he lost his nerve for the confrontation?  
  
The fairy’s tears had now turned to rage. “What’s wrong with  _Tiz_? What’s wrong with you, Agnès?” Airy demanded, swooping into her face and filling her vision. Edea gave a dangerous twitch. “The crystal was this close to being destroyed!”  
  
“I–I am sorry,” Agnès gasped, curling into herself and the comforting reassurance of her friend’s side. She did not understand. She felt adrift. With Tiz’s trust in Ringabel and the sage’s words, she had looked again at the events that had occurred to bring them to this point, to a third world, and examined them with fresh eyes. She had been prepared to test the very foundations of her beliefs. Why had Tiz suddenly withdrawn his support? She was frightened as well, but they had to act! “My mind drifted…”  
  
Airy harrumphed, unconvinced of her sincerity. “You drifted off…? No wonder he’s upset! If even one of the crystals were destroyed, there’d be no way to get rid of the Great Chasm. And you just let yourself get distracted in the middle of the rite?”  
  
“Of course she didn’t mean to, Airy!” Edea protested in her defense. Except Agnès  _had_  meant to destroy the crystal, all but Airy knew that, and the vestal shut her eyes, swallowing. Even if Airy didn’t know her true thoughts, was she correct about Tiz’s? He might have had second thoughts, regrets about giving up the hope that had been promised worlds ago. Was that what had made him break her concentration? She wanted to know. She wished he would say something, anything that might give her a clue.  
  
But it was Ringabel who spoke next, with a laugh aimed to disarm. “Well, if this is what happens when you and Agnès have no distractions from your focus, perhaps I should keep speaking up?”  
  
“Don’t you dare!” Airy fumed. “This is no time for your jokes!”  
  
“Everyone, please.” Tiz’s voice sounded odd, and he swiped at the edge of his mouth with his sleeve, but his breathing had evened out some and he pressed on. “The crystal’s awakened… and look! The Holy Pillar’s risen. We did what we came here to do. Let’s not get upset now. I’m sure we’re all tired, Agnès especially.” He looked at her with his genuine concern; she quickly looked down. “Are you all right?”  
  
“…No,” she said, upset enough to not try belittling her exhaustion. She hadn’t wanted to cause another Holy Pillar to form! Not now that they suspected–if Sage Yulyana’s words were true, it may very well be that the Holy Pillar of one world was the cause of the Great Chasm in another. How was this outcome acceptable to anyone, let alone Tiz? She kept her eyes averted from him, afraid that if she looked, the questions would overflow. Not in front of Airy. Not now… “I want to rest.” She wanted things to make sense.  
  
“Agnès…” Edea squeezed her shoulders. “Come on. I’ll help you change back.”  
  
She let herself be led back into the small side room of the temple dedicated to this purpose, her body stiff under Edea’s guiding hands. She had shut down, her head overwhelmed by a well-known headache that was only magnified by her confusion and upset. It seemed like the pain constricted her mind to small thoughts, tiny petty thoughts that were helpful to no one.  
  
When Edea hugged her again, she teared up and hugged the girl back, whispering an apology. She wanted so badly to reassure her friend that she would not have to fight kin and countrymen yet again. Not in another world. It was supposed to have ended  _here_. She’d promised!  
  
Edea gave a heavy sigh. “Don’t blame yourself, Agnès. You didn’t do anything wrong.”  
  
“But when Tiz…”  
  
With a squeeze in the hug, Edea quickly shook her head. She angled her lips to Agnès’ ears, whispering hurriedly. “He stopped you for a reason! You know he wouldn’t have otherwise.”  
  
Agnès wanted to believe that. It was just difficult at the moment. She wasn’t angry at him; anger would have been straightforward. But she was upset. Upset with him, for withdrawing his support. Upset with herself, for crumbling so quickly without it. But…there was a reason. Of course there was.  
  
Did it justify another Holy Pillar? Surely it would have been worth the danger to stop things here and now…!  
  
“We had a safeguard, just in case. It… it must have been necessary.” Edea’s uncertain voice broke into her thoughts as the younger woman’s hold shifted to unhook the vestal garb in the back. And then, more energetically, the blonde piped up: “You should rest as soon as we get to Grandship, Agnès. Ringabel might want an early start.”  
  
Agnès nearly scoffed at the blatant lie–Ringabel  _never_  wanted early starts, unless he had forgone sleep the entire night and was going mad from having no one else awake to pester–but she caught her friend’s meaning. She should get her rest as soon as possible, because even Airy slept; nighttime would be the best time for the four of them to talk again.   
  
Once she was back in her normal dress, they used a teleport stone to get back to the base of Everlast Tower without further strain on their already fatigued party. With her emotions a bit more under control, Agnès dared to look at Tiz. But if the shepherd noticed her eyes on him, he didn’t show it, plodding on listlessly. He seemed intent only on reaching Grandship. And because she was looking for little things that were off, she noticed how closely Ringabel walked alongside him: the man chattered carelessly away at Edea, as he had been wont to do since the beginning, and his posture was relaxed, but Ringabel had apparently taken it upon himself to be the shepherd’s shepherd. At one point his arm wrapped around the younger man’s shoulders as though to urge him on. Tiz had been slowing down, but… why? She had not heard anything happen during the rite, and yet something had shaken Tiz very badly, and Edea spoke of a safeguard…  
  
Agnès bit down on her lip. One idea had occurred to her, and she did not like it in the slightest. She almost thought it was lucky she was so exhausted, because it would ensure she had less time awake to invent possibilities. After she had reached her bed, removed her armor and laid herself down, her anxieties only kept her awake for five minutes before sleep claimed her.  
  
But then her dreams were troubled, and she kept waking up, again and again, only to see that there was still light outside, or hear Airy flitting about still.  
  
Finally she snapped awake to Edea’s hand hovering just above her. Without the other girl needing to say anything, she quietly rolled out of bed and glanced at Airy as her feet hit the floor. The fairly’s glow was dim where she slept. Good. Tiz and Ringabel had up until a few weeks ago slept in the adjacent room, but then Ringabel had made a fuss of the room being drafty and dragged Tiz along with him to a vacancy further down the hall, one safer from eavesdropping. It wasn’t as though there were other guests to mind; they had the inn to themselves.  
  
Edea rapped softly on their door. “Ringabel? It’s just us two.”  
  
“Come in–ah, the lock.”  
  
“I’ve got it,” Tiz murmured, and after a brief fumble the door popped open. His welcoming smile was almost sickly in how weak it was, Agnès could see that even as her eyes adjusted to the candlelight of their room. The light was centered on a desk, where Ringabel sat. The smile he wore was his serious one, stronger than Tiz’s but restrained as he waited for the door to be locked again.  
  
“Agnès, I’m sure you’ve noticed that plans were amended after you were called away,” he started.  
  
“And I am sure there is an explanation,” she answered, distracted from asking Tiz just what was so wrong. She had her hunch anyway, and if Ringabel were to explain she’d know soon enough.  
  
The blond put his hand on a paper on the desk, standing and offering it to her. “It didn’t go as we had hoped, that much is obvious. But now we know more of our true enemy.”  
  
There was a sketch on the paper, a ghastly one. She moved closer to the candlelight to see the details better, holding it at a distance where Edea could see as well; her friend had as much curiosity as her, no doubt. Her breath caught and she could hear the clench of Edea’s teeth as they each discerned the horned skull-head, the massive larval body with many pairs of arms and legs… and wings. Though there was no color to the picture, the wings and pointed ears and curtain of long, straight hair around the grinning skull-face made the horrific drawing resemble the fairy who’d kept close to her side for so long.  
  
And there was one other image it resembled. The one on the second-to-last page of D’s Journal.  
  
“This is…Airy?” she asked. “This is…” The monster that Ringabel remembered murdering them all. They were truly one and the same. She… had concluded that Airy was either deceiving her or otherwise wrong about awakening the crystals and unwilling to admit her error, had been willing to consider she might be the Evil One. It still hurt to have it confirmed, and she sank down heavily on Tiz’s bed. The young man glanced at her from his own seat at the head of the bed, his hands loosely laced together.  
  
“She… _changed_ , once it was apparent you weren’t going to stop,” Tiz said haltingly. Agnès’ hands clenched, and she lowered the paper to her lap as she turned to look at him fully. “She changed, and… we all fought. You, too.” He looked at her and grinned, seeming more normal for a moment. “You were wonderful, Agnès. There was so much happening, but you kept your focus on the crystal and completely shattered it.”  
  
“And then you wound back time and told me not to,” she said. He’d used time magic, leaving him the only witness to a battle that had now never taken place. He pursed his lips and looked down, and she could feel her heart clenching. A terrible battle. “Though I shattered the crystal, we were killed?”  
  
They must have been. She knew the nature of time slip for herself. It was triggered as the last of the time mage’s life threatened to “slip” away from them, giving them one more chance to try and keep it.  
  
“How badly did we lose, though?” Edea asked, undaunted. “We could try again. Before we go to the Holy Pillar and she opens it fully. We’d have Agnès this time, and foreknowledge–Tiz, we did figure out her weaknesses, didn’t we?”  
  
“Fire hurts her worst, and she has the same weak points as other insects, big as she is,” he murmured. “But we wouldn’t win, even knowing that.”  
  
“Don’t be so pessimistic!” Edea said. “There must be some way to bring her to judgment–”  
  
“Edea,” Ringabel broke in, his voice quiet but firm. “Tiz has already given me his account of the battle. I can relate it to you later, but please…”  
  
She looked at him with frustration creasing her brow, clearly wanting to question Tiz himself further. Then her expression eased and she just looked sad. “It really is that bad, huh?” She flung herself down onto the bed by Tiz, swiftly crawling around to wrap the shepherd in a bear hug from behind.  
  
“I’m all right,” he said. But he slumped against Edea a little as he said it. “You don’t have to treat me like glass.”  
  
“Maybe I just want to hug you, dummy.” She squeezed him tighter, causing him to make a little grunt.  
  
“ _You_  point-blank refused to let me be the one responsible for the time magic.” Ringabel pointed the feather end of his quill at Tiz. “Something about not making me 'relive trauma’ should the worst occur. Forgive me for assuming that since the worst did occur, it might have been traumatizing for you as well, though you at least knew our deaths would not be permanent.”  
  
“It is horrifying,” Agnès said quietly. “Had I known we would need that ability, I would have rather we not tried.” She had held the time mage’s asterisk before Tiz. Being the first in the party to use it, she had not even understood what was happening when her chest that had been impaled by Einheria’s spear was suddenly whole, had not understood how the others were back on their feet when all of them, even Edea, had been cut down by Einheria’s unrelenting attacks. Knowing what Einheria would do had helped her scream warnings to the others, and they had survived the second time, but the visions had not left her mind for weeks. It was little surprise that Tiz was in his day-clothes despite the late hour. She didn’t even want to imagine what nightmares he might have, and she inched closer to him and Edea and stretched out her hand to cover his. “But since it appears we will not defeat her in battle, I… I suppose we must go with her to the next world, and find a way to stop her there.” Even if they were to oppose Airy at this point and escape with their lives, without defeating her, they had no sure guarantee she would not find her own way to the middle of the southern sea, where the Holy Pillar stood. Agnès bit her lip and clasped Tiz’s hand more firmly, knowing he would hate her thoughts. “Though we are not strong enough to win against her, I did break the crystal in the moments you experienced, Tiz?”  
  
He nodded, and opened his mouth, but she looked instead to Ringabel, forcing herself to press on.  
  
“She has said herself that if one crystal were destroyed, the Holy Pillar could not be formed. We can ruin her plans by preventing her from getting into the remaining worlds. That much we…I can accomplish.”  
  
“I don’t appreciate the use of 'I’ there,” Edea said, and Ringabel looked just as grim as she sounded. Agnès shook her head. Was she really so easy to read?  
  
…Probably, yes.  
  
“Whether you like it or not, if only I have to be the aim of her wrath–”  
  
“No!” Tiz’s volume was shocking in an exchange that had thus far been quiet, and he grabbed her hand, squeezing it. “Don’t go any further with that thought. It would never be worth it. You would only be delaying her.”  
  
“…Nn…. that hurts, Tiz.”  
  
He immediately let go. “S, sorry. But I mean it.” At a gesture from Ringabel, he lowered his voice again. “She’s like a monster from the scriptures herself: her lifespan is much longer than a human’s. I…Edea protected me when Airy made her last attack, so I managed to stay conscious for a few moments after our battle was done…I couldn’t move, but I watched, and listened for as long as I could. I wanted us to know as much as possible, if we couldn’t win today. And we upset her. She was furious about the crystal being shattered. But… she just said she’d have to find a crystal core, and that she’d be delayed…five thousand years. Delayed, not stopped. And then this would just resume. We do need to bring her to judgment. But it’ll have to be in the next world.”  
  
“…That’s a little nerve-wracking, I’ll admit,” Edea said, leaning her head on his back. “Going by what Ringabel noticed on her wings, it’ll be the second-to-last world.”  
  
Ringabel nodded. “She’s very close to finishing whatever she’s started.”  
  
“…Actually, that’s another thing,” Tiz began. And then he stopped, looking at Ringabel. It didn’t take long for the man to notice, raising an eyebrow.  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“You said Airy’s wings showed a '6’ in your original world. And they were '5’ in our world, and then '4’, and now '3’.”  
  
“Yes, a countdown,” Ringabel said, frowning. “Like '10, 9, 8’…what of it?”  
  
“Mmm…Well, nothing, exactly. It is a countdown,” Tiz muddled. “But we’ve all been missing the bars.”  
  
“The bars?” Agnès echoed, confused. Come to think of it, Airy did have two little bars on each wing, on the middle of the top edge. But what was significant about them?  
  
“Aren’t those simply part of the wing’s pattern?” Ringabel asked. “As Alternis, I drew the 6 because that was what changed upon the Pillar’s… _no_.”  
  
Edea made a concerned noise, craning her neck over Tiz’s shoulder to look at the suddenly tense man more closely. “What is it?”  
  
“I’ve been a idiot,” he said tersely as he stormed over to his satchel, yanking the mouth of it open and pulling out his old, beaten journal.  
  
“They were easy to miss, Ringabel,” Tiz protested. “I only realized because of one of her comments.”  
  
Agnès’ eyebrows rose as she realized. “Then we aren’t near the end.”  
  
“Perhaps from Airy’s perspective, we are. From ours, no. Far from it.” Ringabel cracked the journal open to the last pages he’d written as Alternis Dim and made two quick slashes before showing them the drawing of Airy’s wing again. He had drawn them a bit bigger in scale than they actually were, but it helped to make the meaning clearer.  
  
1.1.6.  
  
“We’re over one hundred worlds away from the end. Airy’s plan is on an entirely…an entirely different scale than what I’d believed,” he said, and his voice trembled.


End file.
